U.S. Department of Justice: Byrne Criminal Justice Innovation Program

Deadline: February 2, 2017

The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) is seeking applications for the Byrne Criminal Justice Innovation Program (BCJI) to lead efforts to enhance the capacity of local and tribal communities to target and address significant crime issues through collaborative cross-sector approaches that help advance broader neighborhood development goals. Healthy, vibrant communities are places that provide the opportunities, resources, and environment that children and adults need to maximize their life outcomes, including high-quality schools and cradle-to-career educational programs; high-quality and affordable housing; thriving commercial establishments; access to quality health care and health services; art and cultural amenities; parks and other recreational spaces; and the safety to take advantage of these opportunities.

Addressing community safety is the role of criminal justice agencies, the community, and its partners as a whole. To improve and revitalize communities, all relevant stakeholders should be included: law enforcement and criminal justice, education, housing, city attorneys, health and human services, community and faith-based nonprofits, local volunteers, residents, and businesses. Policymakers and their advisors are also critical partners in supporting these efforts to enhance relationships with residents to more effectively address local crime issues. Given the significant needs and limited resources of some of these communities, local and tribal leaders need tools and information about crime trends in their jurisdiction and assistance in assessing, planning, and implementing the most effective use of criminal justice resources to address these issues.

The goal of BCJI is to reduce crime, increase trust, and improve community safety as part of a comprehensive strategy to advance neighborhood revitalization. Through a broad cross-sector partnership team, including neighborhood residents, BCJI grantees target neighborhoods with hot spots of violent and serious crime and employ data-driven, cross-sector strategies to accomplish this goal. The BCJI Program approach is focused on four core objectives:

The program solicits applications in two categories: 1) Planning and Implementation and 2) Implementation only.

Planning and Implementation grant: Applicants will complete a new strategic, collaborative, and community-oriented plan to reduce crime in a target neighborhood and then begin implementation of the plan during the project period. Allotting time to convene all cross-sector partners, collect and analyze a broad range of data, and obtain resident input is critical to the BCJI Program. Therefore, the planning phase must last a minimum of 9 to 12 months. Applicants will use Planning and Implementation funds to:

1. Engage in a 9 to 12-month planning phase to:

Pursue community partnerships and leadership that ensures the community is active in the process. Applicants should focus on building strong community engagement strategies and innovative approaches to collecting resident input and context during the planning phase.

Work with cross-sector management team and law enforcement partners to develop a strategy, drawing on a continuum of approaches to address crime drivers.

Complete an early action project.

Collaborate regularly with local law enforcement, a research partner, and the community to conduct analysis of crime drivers and an assessment of needs and available resources.

Develop a comprehensive implementation plan to reduce crime that includes the analysis, methodology findings, and a plan that articulates the range of strategies that the BCJI cross-sector partners plan to pursue.

2. Upon completion of the planning phase, engage in an implementation phase to:

Convene regular, ongoing meetings with cross-sector partners and the management team

Share regular input/discussions with the research partner and assess program implementation

Build the capacity of residents and the cross-sector management team to continue to coordinate research and ongoing program assessment

Implement, modify, and evaluate strategies, as appropriate

Identify and develop a sustainability strategy for longer term implementation of BCJI Program core principles, including the active role of neighborhood residents

Implementation grant (limited to previous BCJI Planning grantees): Previous BCJI Planning grantees received funds to design and complete a strategic, collaborative, and community-oriented plan to reduce crime in a target neighborhood or community. These grantees were required to produce two deliverables: 1) a plan to reduce crime in the identified neighborhood or community; and 2) completion of an early action project. Applicants will use implementation funds to:

Convene regular, ongoing meetings with cross-sector partners and the management team

Share regular input/discussions with the research partner and assess program implementation

Build the capacity of residents and the cross-sector management team to continue to coordinate research and ongoing program assessment

Implement, modify, and evaluate strategies, as appropriate

Identify and develop a sustainability strategy for longer term implementation of BCJI Program core principles, including the active role of neighborhood residents

Amount:

Planning and Implementation: Up to eight awards of up to $1,000,000 each will be awarded for up to a 36-month period of performance. Note that, during the planning phase, Planning and Implementation grantees will only have access to funds of up to $150,000 of the total award for planning activities.

Implementation only: Four awards of up to $850,000 each will be awarded for up to a 24-month period of performance.